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Big UK chains take advantage of mobile ordering

Fast casual restaurants on the other side of the pond are dabbling in mobile ordering, and the immediate returns have been impressive.

“Look kids, there’s Big Ben and Parliament!”

Two quick service giants have reported significant gains in their mobile ordering recently.  KFC is trying mobile ordering on a small scale but eventually expects it to account for about 10 percent of their orders.  Sister-chain Pizza Hut says mobile orders account for 20 to 30 percent of their UK delivery business.  Meanwhile Domino’s in the UK saw orders from smartphones and tablets make up 19.7 percent of their business, nearly doubling last year’s rate.  The group saw parallel increases in total sales and operating profit.

Mobile ordering creates efficiency.  It allows a restaurant to serve more guests more quickly, while budgeting staff and other resources more effectively.  At the current rate of increase mobile customers would account for a majority of the orders at these restaurants within three or four years.  Just remember a branded mobile ordering app is available to chains and restaurants of all sizes, so no need to leave all of the fun to the mega-chains.

Controlling Android Builds From Command Line

Here at Splick-it, we build apps.  Lots of apps.  When you look at the time it takes to take an app from a code base and a set of assets to a built and tested product ready for release, you can’t help but think that there must be a better way, a more automated solution perhaps.  That problem is exactly the one that I have been trying to tackle and I am here to share a few bits of knowledge that I have picked up along the way.  This week’s post discusses the automation of creating build files and actually building Android apps.  The goal of the first step was to take this process which I currently manage with IntelliJ and run it via command line processes.

We structure our Android applications with a core code base and create different builds of that base according to brand resources.  The first step is to identify your library project and set it up as so.  In the project.properties file of the core project, you will see the following line:

android.library=true

Make sure this flag is set to true to indicate that this is a library project.  As a side note, the Android build process combines these external libraries with the project source after the two have been compiled, turning them into Dalvik byte code (more info on the build process here: http://developer.android.com/tools/building/index.html).

The second step is to create a build file for your project.  Run the following command from the root of your main project (NOT the library project):

android update project -p ./ (path to your project, use this if compiling inside project) -t insertTargetSDKHere -l /path/to/your/library

The -p flag is crucial and points to the project, the -t flag sets the target SDK and the -l flag points to your dependency (the library project).  Similarly, we will create a build file for the library using:

android update lib-project -t insertTargetSDKHere

Next we build the project with ant (by running: ant debug) and it should build correctly.  This is where the problems started for me.  Our library contains all the business logic, with the main projects containing assets and configurations.  When building with ant, I kept receiving the error that there was no /src.  The solution was very simple:  include an empty /src folder in the root of the main project.

After that, update again with:

android update project -t 2 -p ./ -l path/to/library

And rebuild:

ant debug

Finally, start the emulator and install from the /bin with:

adb install .apk

I hope this helps anyone trying to incorporate custom libraries into their code.  Some resources I found exceptionally helpful were the Android developer site, specifically the command line resources (http://developer.android.com/tools/projects/projects-cmdline.html) and the project type explanations page (http://developer.android.com/tools/projects/index.html).

 

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Is the daily deal dead or just growing up?

Daily deal providers like Groupon and LivingSocial have been all over the news lately, for all the wrong reasons. Some analy

sts have forecast the death of the online daily deal. On the contrary, this news is more likely a symptom of the evolution of group buying as a business model. For example, coupling a daily deal program with services like online ordering and loyalty programs actually creates a more valuable one-two punch. Daily deals can help introduce new customers to the business, while the convenience of online ordering and the benefits of a loyalty program keep those customers coming back.

Mobile couponing is only beginning to blossom

Businesses probably can’t rely on one-time coupons to be the driving force of the consumer experience. Coupons work well as part of a larger suite of benefits, and they can be particularly useful in the mobile marketplace.

Data from a number of recent surveys backs this up. Sixty-seven percent of respondents to one survey said they would be willing to share personal information with relevant brands to improve service. Forty percent of smartphone users said they redeem mobile coupons. Fifty percent told another survey they share coupons and other mobile ads at least once a month. Twenty percent obtained their mobile coupons through a retailer application. One researcher expects mobile coupon users to increase 30 percent to over 500 million in 2013. Some expect the mobile coupon redemption rate to exceed $43 billion by 2016. What is obvious is that mobile and smartphone users are keen on coupons.

There are a number of advantages to offering mobile deals. Mobile access allows a business to reach consumers at many points during retail lifecycle, not just when they happen to spot a printed circular or spy a poster on a storefront. It is much more difficult to redeem fraudulent electronic coupons compared to their paper counterparts. Brands can reward users for sharing offers and endorsements across their social networks. With access to highly specific mobile consumer data, a business can make an offer all the more potent by aiming it at a very particular set of customers.

The best news for small to medium sized businesses is that today’s mobile marketplace is more accessible now than ever. Top-quality mobile apps used to be too expensive for all but the biggest corporate monoliths to develop. Today the cost is reasonable for a smaller business to partner with a developer and sell their product in the mobile space. Now a small business can include all the trappings of the latest applications like loyalty programs, flair, user data accumulation and, yes, coupons.

Groupon, LivingSocial and other daily deal providers nailed it when they identified a large customer base of avid mobile and online coupon users. Their mistake was probably expecting daily deals to succeed as a stand-alone business model. As exciting as they are to some consumers, coupons don’t offer much in the way of sustaining customers. Aggregating coupons and other incentives with useful services like food ordering, travel management or store locators is icing on the cake of an already practical application. While the future of Groupon and other daily dealers is murky, there is little doubt that they have laid the groundwork for a lucrative mobile and online coupon market that will endure for some time.

 

Image courtesy of suphakit73/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Q&A with Technomic’s Erik Thoresen

Staying ahead of the curve on communication technology requires close monitoring of the ever-shifting landscape. Firms like Technomic provide invaluable foodservice research that can reveal oncoming trends.

Technomic’s Erik Thoresen conducts proprietary studies for clients and tracks emerging technology in the restaurant and consumer sectors. Splick-it asked Thoresen to elaborate on some recent findings.

Splick-it: Based on what you see at Technomic, is mobile commerce increasing at a faster rate now than in recent years?

Erik Thoresen: Given rising penetration of smartphones, mobile technology represents a more lucrative opportunity to engage with consumers than in the past. However, as it grows, the playing field becomes increasingly crowded and the ability for commerce platforms to cut through the noise is a growing challenge.

S: In broader terms, what do you think your latest data revealed about mobile customers and restaurants?

ET: There is clearly a shift in the way that consumers think about mobile technology and the role it plays when they are dining out and ordering in.

S: What makes dining and ordering food so conducive to mobile technology?

ET: Internet-enabled mobile technology adds a new layer of convenience to ordering food. In this way, it enhances the consumer experience by saving them time. Also, the range of apps that are available to consumers via their mobile device increases their options and gives them more power to find exactly what they are looking for.

S: What can restaurants do to best respond to the data in your study?

ET: Restaurants can apply these insights by looking for areas in which mobile technology can increase patron engagement, drive traffic and provide exposure to new customers.

S: What are the biggest challenges for mobile restaurant ordering?

ET: Mobile is a fast-moving, fast-changing space. The biggest challenge of restaurants is understanding how prioritize their investments of time and money in mobile platforms.

S: Do you think someday mobile devices like smartphones will replace cards and cash as the preferred method of spending? If so can you estimate when?

ET: Innovation around mobile payment platforms is already strong. However, we can expect the introduction of emerging mobile payment technologies to begin boosting adoption over the next decade. However, the timeline for adoption is a big unknown. While younger consumers and early adopters will likely pick up on new payment platforms faster over the next few years, we should expect the majority of consumers to continue to be very cautious new mobile payment platforms in their “early days.”

Lenny’s Sub Shop Bolsters Sandwich Sales via Mobile Ordering App

May 10, 2011

/2011/05/lenny.png” alt=”" />Lenny’s iPhone app
Lenny’s Sub Shop is letting time-crunched consumers skip the line, order their favorite food via a mobile ordering application and pick it up at their nearest location.

The 150-unit franchise company is looking to revolutionize the way that its customers order their meals. The app is available for iPhone and Android devices.

“We are a very technologically progressive company,” said Brent Alvord, president of Lenny’s Sub Shop. “It’s all about convenience for our customers.”

Read more Lenny’s Sub Shop bolsters sandwich sales via mobile ordering app

 

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